This is my first year of ant keeping (2015) and I'd like to share my findings so far. I hope you enjoy!

Camponotus Noveboracensis
The first queen I found was scuttling across my driveway. Although I had a test tube in my pocket, she was very fast and smart; she wouldn't willingly climb into my possession. I used to pick up ants when I was smaller by putting my hands together and making a corral with my thumbs and forefingers, like this. Then ant would eventually walk up on my hand.
I would've done that, but this was an ant species I've never seen before, she was slightly red, and she was huge (15mm) in comparison to the other ants that lived nearby. I wasn't about to test her weaponry. My brother brought me a bucket that we somehow managed to get her in and she calmed down enough for us to lead into the test tube setup I made. She was caught on the 16th of June. She now has 16 brood. She as had pupae for a couple of weeks now.

Here are some pictures of her today.
Guarding the entrance.

I think she is well on her way to a fruitful colony!

Camponotus Pennslyvanicus
One day my brothers and I were at the park. One of my brothers yelled "Will, I think I found a queen", and I rushed over to him. Sure enough, here is this huge (17mm) Camp. Penn. queen lumbering through the woodchips. She was slower, and easier to scoop up. Even though we caught her almost a week after the first, she now has 18 brood. She has shown to be quite a vicious and valiant guard, protecting he babies from a dead fly I tried to feed her. She simply attacked it and made sure it was dead before returning to her clutch. I wont try to feed her again for a few weeks.
Check her out!

I hope you guys enjoy my little camponotus blog, but don't be too impatient for more; they are quite slow growing ants. Hopefully having two will keep up a good show! Ant love forever!

Yes!!! Loving this first journal blog entry. I personally find Camponotus ants among my favourite ants to keep in North America, C. noveboracensis in particular. They're super easy to care for, so full of energy, look cool at their various worker sizes, and are quite large.

Domrom17 wrote:Your so lucky. I've always wanted to keep a camponotus species, but everytime I find a queen, she's always too fast for me. One time, I actually caught a camponotus pennsylvanicus, but before I could put her in her test tube, one of my cousins killed her.
Sad day for me...

Yeah, Ms. Nova was super fast, but the huge Camp. Penn. I found was too big to be speedy
Sorry about the Camponotus incident!

Journal #3!
Last night I checked my ants and I have a population count. Nova (C.Noveboracensis) has a total of six workers and a ball of brood. Penn (C.Pennslyvanicus) has two workers and about six pupa (one of which is naked ). Nova's workers seemed hungry and were pulling at the cotton, but it was going to be hard to feed them without escapees. I decided to move them into the outworld this morning, so I could easily feed them. I blocked off the entrance to the nest, as that's a forbidden place until they have more workers. I fed them a drop of honey and some fish flakes, which they gorged themselves on. They were clearly full by the time I removed the honey . The colony was pretty alarmed when I tore their double test-tube setup in half and put them in the outworld. I was kind of jumpy because I'm very nervous about getting bit/stung/sprayed by ants for some reason. Small insects panic me when they seem to get aggressive . I'm working through it. They now seem very happy with their full gasters and newfound territory. Enough of my blabbing, here are some pictures!

Queen Penn is quite the worry wart, so I'm not going to stress her out more to take pictures. Don't worry though, with that amount of pupae, her empire should be taking the reigns soon enough.

AntsCanada wrote:Wow! Fantastic updates. Feels great, doesn't it? Great photos, too! We'll be following these colonies along with you.

Thanks, Mikey, I really appreciate it!

I'm waiting for new news myself, but patience is the key. Hardly anyone came out of the test tube today. One of the workers is often working on closing the test tube off with loose sand I gave her, but everyone else was a home-body. It seems like another worker is close . Also, I'll try to get some pictures of Penn soon!